(024) – THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH

 

According to the Gospel of John, the creator of the world is Jesus. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. ALL THINGS CAME INTO BEING BY HIM; and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-3). “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him” (John 1:10). And here we have Paul’s words: “…all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col.1:16,17). To hold together means that things go on being by the acting of the power of Christ. In the letter to the Hebrews we read: “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, THROUGH WHOM ALSO HE MADE THE WORLD” (Heb. 1:1,2).

The question we ask is: If Jesus is the author of creation with the power given to him by the Father, why did Jehovah declare himself its exclusive author, with the participation of no one else? Jesus said: “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 5:30). “We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day” (John 9:4). Let us hear what Jehovah has to say: “Thus says Jehovah God, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it” (Is. 42:5). In this text Jehovah says that this world subsists by his power, and omits the name of Jesus Christ. There are other texts that say that Jehovah was the author of creation: Is. 45:12; Ps. 148:1-5.

Would Jehovah and Jesus be the same person? If so, Jehovah omitted the Father. In the Psalm 110, David said, “The Lord said to my Lord…” Jesus affirmed to be this Lord of the Psalm 110, so Jesus is not Jehovah (Matt. 22:41-46).

Jesus and Jehovah have the power to create. Jehovah promised to create a new heaven and a new earth, where there would be no memories of past things (Is. 65:17). Jesus created a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1). Let us compare the two creations to see if they are the same, or if they would be two separate ones:

  • There will be death in Jehovah’s creation (Is. 65:20).
  • In Jesus’, there will be no death (Rev. 21:4).
  • There will be curses in Jehovah’ s creation (Is 65:20).
  • In Jesus’, there will not be any curse (Rev. 22:3).
  • There will be constructions in Jehovah’s creation (Is. 65:21,22).
  • In Jesus’, there will not be any constructions (Heb. 11:10, Matt. 25:34).
  • There will be aging in Jehovah’s creation (Is. 65:22).
  • In Jesus’, there will not be any aging (Rev. 22:14).
  • There will be procreation in Jehovah’s creation (Is. 65:23).
  • In Jesus’, there will not be procreation (Luke 20:35).
  • There will be the serpent (the devil) in Jehovah’s creation (Is. 65:25).
  • In Jesus’, there will not be the serpent (Rev. 20:10).
  • There will be night in Jehovah’s creation (Is. 66:22,23).
  • In Jesus’, there will be no more night (Rev. 21:25).

They are completely diverse narratives, and opposites for the same promises. They are, therefore, two different creations. The most striking detail in the new creation of Jehovah is in Isaiah: ‘For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so your offspring and your name will endure, and it shall be from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before Me,’ says Jehovah. ‘Then they shall go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be an abhorrence to all mankind.’” (Is. 66:22-24). This text reveals decisive truths:

1.      “From new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath ” reveal that there will be night in the new earth, contradicting Rev. 21:25.

2.   “All mankind coming to bow before Jehovah” contradicts John 4:22-24, where we that, flesh cannot worship God, only the spirit can.

3.    There will be a mountain of corpses being eaten up by worms in the midst of an infernal fire, causing terror to all flesh. Paul, the great Apostle, says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50).

This infernal picture of Jehovah, presented as the new heaven and new earth, is mentioned by Jesus in the Gospel of Mark:  “And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands TO GO TO HELL, INTO THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE, WHERE THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than having your two feet, to be cast into hell, WHERE THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED. And if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:42-48).

This life referred to by Jesus is heaven, and the corpses eaten by worms in the unquenchable fire is hell. Jehovah declares, though, that in his new heaven and new earth, his worshippers will see these decaying corpses being eaten by worms, in the midst of the flames of hell. What we can understand by the words of Jesus, above, is that the ones he rejects will go to the heaven Jehovah prepared, that is, hell. Jehovah’s conception of a new heaven and a new earth is so below the glory of the kingdom of Jesus that Jesus spoke of it as hell.

 

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

 

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